Monday, December 29, 2014

For actual Christmas this year, we were with my side of the family (we rotate every year). We drive the seven hours the 23rd overnight and arrived early in the morning on the 24th.

Minivan loaded! Illinois here we come

All smiles!

Kylie wasn't so sure she wanted to do a long carride!

I'm not sure who was more excited the day we got there, me or my parents! It had been 5 months since we've seen them! That morning they were up early and ready to play with the kids!

Kylie all smiles waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to wake up

Alex was also all smiles!

Grandpa enjoyed pushing them on the little cars they got.

Grandma and Grandpa then played with them in the kitchen and took this cute pic:

It's was a busy morning....the kids wore out their grandparents!

That night, Christmas Eve, we got pizza and just relaxed. The kids scoped out their gifts!

Family pic in front of the tree, the kids did not get the memo to look at the camera!

The next day was officially BABIES FiRST CHRISTMAS! (I wasn't overly excited for that or anything!)

In front of the tree in Christmas pjs.....Alex had different ones but he gave us the Christmas gift of a morning blowout so we had to change him :) shortly after that my brother, his wife, and my super cute nephew arrived.

The cousins!

Grandma and Grandpa were in baby Heaven! This was the second time they had all their Grandkids together.

We opened presents and all three kids were spoiled rotten! Here are Alex and Jayden on tier rocking horses

Kylie loves her baby stroller!

Hanging out in the basement with my Princess!

Posing by the tree

Family photo attempt

Alex playing with the xylophone from Uncle Jeff, he loves that toy!

Diva modeling her Santa hat

Looking at Christmas lights

Bouncing with Grandpa

Kylie's turn to bounce!

Cookies with Daddy

A quick story with Grandma before all of the extended family arrived

All three Grandkids with Grandma, Grandpa, and great grandma Aussieker

All three Grandkids with Grandma, Grandpa, and great grandma McCarthy

Four generations!

Four Generations! (So blessed to be able to do two of these photos!)

Family photo!

Story time with Grandma and Great Grandma

It was a very merry and fun Christmas! The last two days of our trip home were also a blast. They were filled with playing in the ball pit, playing on their cars, playing with new toys, crawling everywhere, learning to walk behind the baby stoller!!!!! (More on that later), and the kids yelling to the dog when he was outside.....

Playing on pillows

Showing off our new pink boots

Bouncing on the exercise ball

Playing with Uncle Jeff

Family photo our last day! Mav was to busy to join us!

Getting a few last hugs with Grandma and Grandpa before leaving

Bedtime stories before packing up

It was a wonderful trip. The twins first Christmas was perfect and full of memories for me and Ed. It was so good to see my parents and I'm hoping we never go this long between visits again! I hope everyone else had a truly Merry Christmas!! :)

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Since we are so far from our families we always travel home for the Holidays, so that generally means no Christmas at our place. We decided it would be a huge pain to bring all the kids gifts from us and Santa to my parents house so we celebrated the weekend before.....which will continue to be our Christmas. We are making it as much like Christmas as we can including having our Christmas Eve and Santa coming early so he can find us :)

"Can we open one gift now?"

Mav was not impressed with his holiday outfit this year.

On our Christmas Eve we ordered pizza and had that and Christmas cookies for dinner.

Then everyone put on Christmas pjs and we played with the kids. Once they were asleep Ed and I played Santa!

All five of our stockings stuffed from Santa! (Yes the dog has a stocking and Ed and I get each other stocking stuffers)

Our tree all ready!

Once we had their Santa gifts set up we watched a Christmas movie together. The next day was our Christmas Day! I got up and got breakfast (monkey bread) in the oven and then we let the kids find their stockings. Kylie initially was excited and stared to crawl over then got distracted with a dog toy so Alex beat her there. They had fun pulling their new socks (I know, real exciting) out of their stockings. They were most excited for their new toy cars!

Checking out their Santa gifts

I know they don't look impressed on their cars, but they really were all smiles!

Mav enjoying his new toy!

After stockings the kids drove to the Christmas tree for a photo op before opening gifts from Mommy and Daddy

We got them a playhouse, some new books, a cube toy, and new outfit each. They did really well opening gifts, they loved the tissue paper (as long as they could eat it), and loved the bows (again if they could eat it!). We did have to love their cars to another room though bc they were so distracted by the cars that initially they did not want to open gifts. (I told you, they LOVE their cars). AHere are some of my fav pics from opening gifts:

Teamwork!

Mmmmm wrapping paper

The aftermath

Saving bows for later

By the time we were done with presents monkey bread was ready, delicious!

After breakfast the kids got dressed

We spent the rest of the day playing with new toys....aka pushing the kids on their cars over and over and over.....

About Me

Living in Minnesota with my amazing, loving husband and our sweet, entertaining dog. Enjoying everything life has to offer. Hoping to use this blog to share what is going on in our lives with our family and friends in other states.